The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Contact Centre Association of Malaysia (CCAM) was inaugurated in September 1999. Since then, it has been at the forefront of developing the local CRM and contact centre industry in Malaysia. It is a strategic think-tank, an educational platform and a progressive establishment geared towards constantly improving the calibre of industry professionals.

Currently, CCAM has members who own and operate contact centres, use contact centres, and members who serve the contact centre industry in a broad range of vertical industries including:
•     Banks and financial institutions;
•     Insurance;
•     Telecom providers;
•     Manufacturers;
•    Government departments;
•    Utilities, transport and healthcare providers;
•     Hospitality; and
•     Information technology providers.

In 2009, CCAM embarked on an intensive campaign to educate its members with a series of competency programmes to bring our CRM and Contact Centre population up to speed with what is currently being practised in the global arena. These campaigns have raised awareness and created the need for individuals and companies in this space to focus on skills and talents which will make Malaysia a reliable and cost-competitive hub for this industry.

Recently, CCAM was voted to be the chair for a regional organisation that is the umbrella association for nine contact centre associations in Asia Pacific (Asia-Pacific Contact Centre Association Leaders, or APPCAL).

The industry in Malaysia
The industry in Malaysia came about initially from large local conglomerates hiving off their domestic outsourcing requirements to wholly-owned subsidiaries about 15 years ago, unlike other business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers that set up global hubs in India or the Philippines to cater primarily for a  global market. Over the last decade, Malaysia has built up a handful of local players, some of whom cater for an international market. Malaysia has also attracted multinational corporations (MNCs) which have set up large contact centres and back-office operations to service their global customer base.

As a result, Malaysia is well regarded as an inhouse hub for MNCs but not as an outsourcing destination for BPO service providers. Considering that large BPO service providers have multiple MNC clients, their presence in Malaysia by extension means that their MNC client base also use Malaysia as a base of operations. India and the Philippines have numerous world-class service providers that in turn have a multitude of global brands that they serve, which in turn are exposed to those countries’ strengths first hand.

Malaysia’s inherent strengths of a multilingual workforce, good infrastructure, and stable political and legal framework are underpinned by its perceived inability to scale, have a skilled workforce and be cost competitive. This has resulted in global BPO service providers bypassing Malaysia for India and the Philippines.

MNCs that have been in Malaysia for decades immediately understood her strengths and set up shared services hubs. MNCs such as Dell, HSBC, OCBC, Shell and DHL are enjoying the benefits of operating out of Malaysia.
The BPO industry in Malaysia has grown organically and today comprises about 50,000 skilled professionals. The Indian and Philippine hubs have more than a million skilled professionals. Considering that the global benchmark for the number of professionals employed by BPO service providers in industrialised countries is approximately 1.5% of the population, Malaysia has a long way to go.

What needs to be done
There is an evident void in the eyes of the global BPO industry that Malaysia needs to fill. The perception of a lack of skilled professionals, the inability to scale and be cost competitive for a global client base needs to be addressed immediately. The Malaysian government needs to regard this industry as a stepping stone in its quest to convert Malaysia into a service-based economy. The perception that it is a low-cost telephone operators job, albeit with a starting salary of RM2,500 (these professionals are usually graduates), has to be reversed. Global brands are conscious that their customers are pivotal to their business.

BPO service providers have to embrace the values, processes and the work ethic of the global brands they serve. Local BPO players are therefore required to understand global benchmarks and standards and excel at them. This in turn builds a globally competent workforce for Malaysia that is the catalyst to enable our young professionals to move up the global services value chain.

Malaysia is far behind the global competition. While India has spent the last two decades developing world-class human capital, Malaysia has spent the last two decades building world-class infrastructure.

Malaysia has to focus on developing its human capital, growing and enabling the local industry, and marketing its abilities to the world.
The Malaysian government’s human capital development initiatives in upgrading a segment of the potential workforce has made a difference to the quality of young working professionals in the industry. However, to build further on this platform, there has to be an integrated strategy to attract

MNCs and global BPO service providers to take advantage of these national assets. Competition in Malaysia will create a market for these services.
Malaysia must offer a branded customer experience to the world.

The BPO industry in Malaysia has the potential to become a much larger employer and contributor to our foreign exchange earnings, provided that sufficient attention is displayed by the government and all stakeholders in this industry. The global BPO industry is the fastest-growing industry in the world today, and to disregard it will be a missed opportunity for Malaysia in its quest to build a service-based economy.

Leo Ariyanayakam is president of CCAM and group CEO of Scicom (MSC) Bhd
This article appeared in netv@lue2.0, the technology section of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 788 Jan 11 - 17 2010